Watch First Trailer for Steven Spielberg Film 'The BFG'

Centering on a gentle giant ("BFG" stands for Big Friendly Giant and is played by Mark Rylance), the story follows a 10-year-old orphan named Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) who is literally plucked out of her bed to join the 24-foot-tall creature in Giant Country. It's there where she learns that he is a gentle and charming collector of dreams, which he then sends out to children.

"I think it was kind of genius of Roald Dahl to be able to empower the children," Spielberg, who is a father himself, said in a statement. "It was very, very brave of him to introduce that combination of darkness and light which was so much Disney's original signature in a lot of their earlier works like in 'Dumbo,' 'Fantasia,' 'Snow White' and 'Cinderella,' and being able to do scary, but also be redemptive at the same time and teach a lesson, an enduring lesson, to everyone, it was a wonderful thing for Dahl to have done, and it was one of the things that attracted me to want to direct this Dahl book."

While Spielberg directs the Disney film, the script is from Melissa Mathison, who passed away last month from cancer and was perhaps best known for writing another Spielberg favorite, "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial."